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We have written extensively about the importance of leveraging health data to improve health care quality, to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities, and to reduce the unsustainable costs of our health care system. Concerns about the sensitivity of health data require us to leverage this data responsibly, in a way that respects the interests of individuals in health privacy and engenders public trust. De-identification of health data can be an important tool for protecting privacy while still preserving the utility of health data for analytic purposes. But the ability of de-identification to meet both of these goals depends in large part on the deployment of effective health data de-identification methodologies. There are distressingly few resources (and only a handful of experts) available to health data researchers and health data stewards to help them understand – and effectively implement – health data de-identification methodologies.

A decision out of the Department of Health and Human Services, Monday, took a good first step toward achieving a better quality, less expensive health care system that carries the added benefit of better protections for individual patient health records. That move was the issuance of long overdue guidance for methods of de-identify data gleaned from…

The staggering amount of personal health data now being collected for treatment or billing purposes has a life beyond the doctor’s clipboard. That data is collected, stripped of personally identifying information (“de-identified”) and re-used in ways that are vital for medical breakthroughs, improving patient care, or predicting public health trends. And it’s just as valuable when used for targeted…

Oversight and accountability for following federal privacy and security rules is critical if the public is going to trust that the next generation of electronic health care providers, insurers, and billing services can protect the privacy of their medical information. A recent report by the Government Accountability Office questions whether sufficient work is being done to build…